[NYTr] ABA Journal Names Bush Dirtbag Gonzalez "Lawyer of the Year"

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP via Yahoo - Dec 13, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071212/ap_on_go_ot/gonzales_lawyer_of_the_year_3

Gonzales named lawyer of the year

By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer

Negative news coverage may have cost former Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales his job, but it won him a dubious honor Wednesday from a
magazine published by the American Bar Association: Lawyer of the Year.

Additionally, the ABA Journal named Gonzales' successor, Attorney
General Michael Mukasey, as its top lawyer for 2008 — mostly in
anticipation of how often he'll be in the media spotlight for trying to
repair the beleaguered Justice Department.

The monthly magazine gave the awards to lawyers who made the most news,
said editor and publisher Edward A. Adams.

"Think about Time magazine's Person of the Year," Adams said in an
interview. "In years past they've named people like Adolf Hitler,
Joseph Stalin. So we're not suggesting by these awards that these are
the best lawyers in any sense of the word. We are saying they are the
most newsworthy — and perhaps also the best."

Gonzales resigned in September after 2 1/2 years at the department amid
investigations into whether he broke the law and lied to Congress. He
has denied any wrongdoing.

A public furor that surfaced last January over the firings of nine U.S.
attorneys, and whether they were politically motivated, marked the
beginning of the end of Gonzales' tenure as attorney general. His
conflicting public statements about the ousters led Democrats and
Republicans alike to question his honesty.

Also, House testimony by a former top aide to Gonzales, Monica M.
Goodling, raised questions about whether he was trying to coach her
answers about the firings — potentially illegally tampering with a
witness in ongoing congressional and Justice Department inquires.
Gonzales has said he was merely trying to comfort Goodling at an
awkward time.

It's unusual for the ABA Journal to pick its Lawyer of the Year even
before the year has begun. But the magazine did just that with Mukasey
for 2008, predicting in a news release that the new attorney general
will be a top newsmaker "as he deals with the problems he inherited
from Gonzales in the politically charged climate of a presidential
election year."

Adams said the magazine's picks "do not necessarily reflect the
official policy of the ABA." The American Bar Association is made up of
about 400,000 lawyers in the United States.

Other high-profile lawyers that were nominated for the distinction
included Goodling, the Justice Department's liaison to the White House
who quit in April amid the political firestorm; I. Lewis "Scooter"
Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff who was
convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in the investigation
into the leaked identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson;
and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the top prosecutor in Chicago who
won the case against Libby.

On the Net:
ABA Journal: http://www.abajournal.com/